Web Conferencing Tips, News, and Opinions

January 31, 2017

"Think Different." The incredibly effective (and grammatically infuriating) late nineties marketing campaign for Apple is still studied as an example of how to differentiate a brand and make iconoclasm work for you.

People love pointing to non-conformist geniuses to show the power unleashed when you break away from conventional norms and boldly follow your own vision: Picasso and his cubist painting. Miles Davis and his cool jazz movement. Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi and his nonviolent non-cooperation independence movement.

What many people miss in these stories is that to break away from tradition effectively, each of these people studied, practiced, and understood the traditional approaches first. Picasso didn't start out painting crazy flattened faces with both eyes on one side of the nose… He spent many years learning and practicing realistic painting techniques. Miles Davis studied music theory and trumpet technique at Juilliard. Gandhi studied law and jurisprudence in London.

What does that strange introduction have to do with this blog's focus on web presentations? Lately I have heard an uptick in people asking "How do I make my webinar stand out?" Often the subject is brought up by the technology vendors themselves. Web conferencing companies are always pushing for greater use of features. When they started coming out with interactive polling, every vendor said you need to incorporate polls in order to make your webinar great. When webcam video became practical, the vendors said you need to appear on webcam in order to stand out. There's currently a big push to include video clips from services such as YouTube or Vimeo as webinar content. If a vendor has another unique feature, you can bet they will tell you it is the thing that is going to let you "Think Different" and deliver a great presentation.

I'm not against the use of any of these features. Judiciously applied, they can indeed add flair to a presentation and recapture attention from an audience. But don't think that you can skip over a good, solid grounding in the basics of the art form. In our context, that refers to fundamental presentation skills.

Structure content to address audience interests and priorities

Practice your presentation, refine, and practice again

Create supporting visuals that concisely emphasize and support key concepts

Demonstrate interest, enthusiasm, and empathy

Make sure listeners grasp the value they receive from your presentation

If you can't confidently and unambiguously say that you have these five fundamentals thoroughly in hand, adding a video or a poll will just be icing on a bland cake.

Once you understand how the science of presentation works and can deliver a conventional presentation competently and engagingly, you can move on to examining opportunities for alternative approaches. You can play with audience expectations and add specialized content.

If you haven't seen it yet, take a look at this wonderful comedic video by Pat Kelly satirizing the structure and delivery of an on-stage TED Talk:

Pat Kelly TED Talk

Some would say that this demonstrates how formulaic and mundane TED Talks have become. I say that you could take every… single… word… of Mr. Kelly's stage instructions and apply them verbatim in your next presentation. You would receive a standing ovation and acclaim as an incredibly polished, confident, and effective speaker. Mr. Kelly has done the analysis for you and created a point by point guide to effective delivery.

Once you mastered this presentation style, you would be ready to branch out into Lawrence Lessig territory or maybe even try your hand at a Dick Hardt slideshow:

Don't be seduced by flashy features or unconventionality for its own sake. There are plenty of bad performance artists nobody cares about. If you are going to Think Different, make sure you know what you are being different than. And that you have a darned good reason for using the difference to be more effective. It can work. You can be the next Marlon Brando and change the face of acting forever. You'll just have to be sure there is a method to your madness.

January 26, 2017

Why do you start your webinar by introducing the presenter? No, honestly. Think about it… People come to a webinar for two main reasons. Either they really want to hear the information that has been promised or they really want to hear from a particular speaker who has been advertised. In neither case do they need or want to start the session with a biographical backgrounder on the speaker. If they care about the speaker, they know the person's credentials already. If they care about the topic, you are wasting their time in getting to the promised value.

I want to be clear that I am not advocating against a moderator leading with some necessary introductory comments and then handing off to the presenter by name. But this should be a one-liner: "And now, let's hear from Bob Loblaw, head of social discourse for AggroCorp. Bob, take it away." Name and title is all you need.

"But a strong biography builds credibility!" - Unnecessary. The presenter has perceived credibility associated with her by the mere fact of her function as the presenter.

"But people expect it!" - Not as much as you think. They are delighted to start receiving value more quickly.

"It gives latecomers a chance to join without having missed anything!" - Yes, let's penalize the people who cared enough to show up on time in favor of an unknown number of people who may or may not show up an unknown number of minutes later.

Several webinar technologies have the ability to add biographical text for each presenter. Attendees can click on it if they want more detail. I encourage the use of this feature. If your technology doesn't have that, make a PDF with the presenter names, pictures, and biographies. Include contact details if the presenters agree. Make the PDF available as a handout in the session. Does your technology not allow handouts? Make a dedicated web page with the same information. Publish the link in the chat.

A single-topic webinar is NOT the same as an all-day symposium or TED Talks conference. People are not sitting around waiting to be surprised by the next topic and the next speaker. They have made a commitment to listen to a very specific topic and presenter. Do them the favor of respecting their priorities and ruthlessly trim anything that delays delivery of value.

I hereby pledge that from now on as a webinar guest speaker I will request that my hosts eliminate my biographical introduction. I'll try to earn credibility and respect from the value of my content and the quality of my presentation. I may not always win the battle, but it's worth the fight!

The company itself was acquired by Siris Capital Group in September 2015, but continues to operate under the more familiar public-facing name of PGi.

Acquisitions of web conferencing and audio conferencing companies are commonplace. Microsoft bought Placeware, Cisco bought WebEx, LogMeIn bought the GoTo product suite from Citrix, and West Corporation bought everyone else they could find. Still, not everyone has been a fan.

Back in July of 2015, Martin Vlcek wrote on the Seeking Alpha investment site that he was concerned the acquisitions might be masking falling core sales volumes, leading to overpayment for the acquired companies. I am not savvy enough about the financial aspects of the deal to form an opinion in that area, but the deal does not surprise me or set off alarm bells in my mind.

Scrappy little ReadyTalk seemed like a ripe acquisition target, without the burden of other business units or corporate entanglements to slow the process. It has a good product set, with customers who seem to like the company. And PGi never gained the widespread public recognition and goodwill they had hoped for from their core web conferencing products iMeet and GlobalMeet. I think the combination of TalkPoint for large-audience webcasting and ReadyTalk for slightly smaller interactive webinars gives them a strong, proven product suite that can cover a lot of use cases.

With PGi going after everything with "Talk" in the company name, I suppose BrightTalk should be looking over their shoulder next! (Hmmm… That's actually not such a crazy idea. It would fill the triangle of use cases with an archive-focused product that is strong on recorded playback.)

January 11, 2017

Certain types of questions come up time and again on webinars. A well-organized webinar team knows the answers ahead of time and is ready to provide quick responses to attendees. If you have a moderator or session assistants monitoring the chat log during the webinar, they should know the answer to these common questions and have prepared responses ready to copy and paste.

Proper planning means more than just agreeing that you will make the slides available. It means you have checked with your guest speaker and confirmed that s/he is comfortable with distributing the materials and that there are no copyright issues involved or special attribution needed. It means having a download link already planned so you can publicize it immediately… Or my personal preference: Having a post-webinar resources page created with "coming soon" placeholders for any materials not yet ready.

Proper planning means you have scheduled the additional follow-up tasks you will need to perform after the live session, and have people assigned to them with calendar time blocked out for each task after the webinar. You will be ready to deliver post-session materials and send out emails as quickly as possible.

Proper planning means that if you are not providing something an attendee might ask for, you have a diplomatic and approved way of stating why it will not be made available, which all assistants can consistently use.

Here are a few of the most common questions I see in webinars, with examples of the type of responses you should have prepared in your copy and paste "cheat sheet." Obviously the specifics will be your own, but this gives you an idea of the type of planning you want to put in place ahead of time.

1) Will the presentation slides be made available?

You will be able to download them later in this web session

We will be posting them at this address after the session: http…

We will send you a download link by email later today

2) Can I watch a recording of the webinar?

We will post the recording on this page after the session: http…

We will send you a playback link by email tomorrow

We plan to edit the recording to optimize the quality. We will send you an email with a link as soon as it is ready.

3) Can we get a list of all questions asked, with the answers?

Yes, we will review the question log and create a reference document with answers. You will receive an email with a download link when it is ready.

No, the volume of questions prevents us from creating a full answers document. But let us know if there is a specific question you would like to get an answer to.

4) Are professional credits available for this webinar?

Yes, you will receive a certificate by email as soon as we have verified time in session from our logs.

Yes, you will receive an email later today with instructions for claiming your credit.

Unfortunately this webinar has not been pre-approved for credits. Please consult with your state board to see if you can claim the viewing time for credit.

Attendees recognize and appreciate a webinar team that is prepared with answers to questions that seem obvious. Having a set of canned, ready-to-use responses to questions such as these will make you look more professional and competent, while making it easier to concentrate on more relevant topic-related questions.

Feel free to add a comment with other standard questions you like to plan responses for in your webinars!

I recommend you use this anniversary as a way to reflect on your own presentations. Tech need not be dry and boring. Marketing need not be formulaic and "pitchy." And demos need not be tedious. Making a good presentation takes thought, preparation, and rehearsal. They don't just happen on their own. Will your next presentation be worth watching ten years from now?